Microfleet Wars is a very simple and fun lego miniature space war gaming system for those with a little collection, little time, or little brian. It can be played with the minimum of lego bricks, time, and thinking. On the flip side you can also play it with a lot of lego bricks, plenty of time, and a keen tactical mind. It can be a fun destructive game for those who prefer not to think too much, or an in depth stratagy game for the more tactically minded. The rules are roughly based off an old space stratagy video game called 'Ares'. Which was similarly a very simple game with lots of potential for stratagy or plain destructive fun. A full game of Microfleet can be played with only an hour or two, sometimes less. It takes only a few minutes for new players to learn the basics, and by the end of the game they can be playing away without so much as glancing at the rules.

Equipment:

All you need to play are some very simple things that any lego fan probably has or could obtain easily. First of all you need lots of mini/micro ships. These can be very simple or rather elaborate. Since you want to have lots of availible ships in each class it's best to keep the smaller ones fairly simple. We'll cover this more later. Then you need a standard six sided gaming dice. Or a d6 for short. You'll probably want several of them, the more the merrier. Lastly, you need a one foot ruler for measuring distances. You can also use a 32 stud baseplate which is only a little bit larger than a foot. Just don't try to use both at the same time so as not to confuse measurement. If you want you could use miniature resin or die cast ships instead of lego ships, though the rules are made with Lego in mind.

How to play:
Each player gets a base, usually represented by something round to symbolise a planet. I could also be a miniature space station built from lego, or a ball, though balls have a tendency to roll away. The bases are set on opposite sides or corners of the playing field, a table usually makes a fine playing field. Each player also gets a certain number of starting ships. How many and what class can be decided by the players before hand and everybody gets the same thing.
A cardboard planet, and a pair of Lego pieces that can be used for planets or stations.

The game is divided into rounds and turns. At the beginning of the round the players roll a d6 initiative roll. Whoever wins the initiative moves first. Everyone takes turns moving one ship till all moves are expended, at which point the round ends. A move is defined as any specific action or set of actions. The most basic is having one ship move and shoot. For instance, I win the initiative, I have one ship move forward and fire its guns at an enemy ship. That would be my turn and now the next player can have a ship move and shoot.
A basic turn, one ship moves and shoots.

Alternitively you can only move one ship, or only have a ship fire. However this still counts as your turn, you can't move or shoot with more than one individual ship on a turn. Each ship can only move and shoot once in a round, it is then inert until the next round starts.

The other basic type of move is building a ship. At the beginning of every round each player gets one resource. Usually we represent these with 1 stud pips. When you get a resource you take a pip and put it on your base or wherever else you want. Usually each players starts the game with ten resources to spend as they wish. When you have enough resources you can turn them in to buy ships and build them at your base.
A stack of resources on a planet.

Building a ship takes one turn. Having subtracted the correct number of resources from your supply you set the ship you built next to your planet and it becomes the next player's turn. Once all the ships on both sides have moved and used their shots, and any building actions or other actions have been done, you move onto the next round. Each players rolls initiative again and move their ships if they wish ect ect. The more complicated aspects of the game concern bases and winning the game. As mentioned at the beginning, each side gets a base. The way to win the game is to capture the enemy base. This is done by landing a special ship, a transport, on their base. To do this a transport must first be built, then moved on top of, or right next to, the enemy base.
A transport needs to be touching the enemy base to capture it.

A seperate turn must then be used to have the transport disgorge troops and capture the base. There is no diceroll here, once the transport lands/docks, the base is captured. Because it takes two turns, first moving into position, and then capturing the base, the transport must be defended from attack. In fact it's usually best to elliminate all enemy resistance first. Since it would take forever to build a fleet on one resource per turn there is an additional game mechanism, power stations.

Power stations are represented by smaller round objects or station mini's, they are like bases in that they don't move, they just stay in position on the playing field.
The flat disks that came with old creator pods make great power stations.

The locations of Power stations are agreed upon by the players before the game starts. The stations might belong to no one at the beginning, or each player might have a station or two of their own. Power stations are captured by transports in the same way bases are captured. When a power station belongs to a faction, that faction gets to take an additional resource per turn. So if you own one power station you get two resources per turn, if you own two stations you get three ect ect. Controlling the power stations on the field is vital to success, obviously if you're getting three resources per turn to the enemy's one, you can quickly build a sufficiant fleet to crush their defenses and capture their base.

If there's more than two players and one player elliminates another by capturing their base. That player can now build ships at both bases, and also gets an extra resource per turn from the second base.

The game usually goes in phases. For several rounds both sides might just sit and not harm each other, while collecting resources and building ships. Then one side launches an attack on the other resulting in several rounds of furious fighting which leaves both fleets depleted, and sometimes one side with extra power stations or other advantages. Or the transport intended for the attack might be destroyed and the attacker is forced to pull back with their surviving ships. For a faster, but less tactical game you can simply set out fleets for all sides and throw them against each other with no bases or power stations or transports to worry about. Either game type can be great fun.

Ships and guns:

Ships are extremely simple in Micro Lego Fleet, there are several classes each with an armor rating, and guns. All ships have the same movement stats. They can move up to one foot on a turn and turn to face any direction. A ship can only move once per turn, if it has more than one gun it can shoot at multiple targets. However it must use a second turn to rotate and fire at the second target, ect. If a ship does not move its full one foot distance on one turn, it can move the rest of the distance later on another turn. To rapidly move from one end of the playing field to the other a ship can use its warp drive to move two feet instead of one, however it cannot fire any weapons once it has made a warp move since it has to direct its weapons energy to the drive.
A ship can move one foot.
It can also rotate to face any direction and shoot, after moving on a turn.

To keep the game simple all guns use the same stats. So when you say a ship has two guns it has two guns, there's nothing more. Guns are generally called lasers since that is the oldest sci-fi weapon. Lasers work as follows:
You declare that a ship is firing a laser at a target, the maximum range is one foot. You then roll a d6 hit roll. If you roll a 4 or higher the laser hits. Otherwise it is a miss. If the laser hits you roll the d6 again, this time a damage roll. If what you roll on the damage roll is equal or greater than the armor of the target, the target is destroyed. If the roll is lower than the target's armor the attack is absorbed by shields and no damage is done whatsoever. This way either a target is destroyed or unharmed and there's no need to keep track of how much armor every ship on the field has left. If a ship has more than one laser (and most do) you can salvo all the guns together at the same target. In this case you roll however many d6's as the ship has guns. Then you count how many hits there are and roll that many d6's again for the damage, adding up each individual roll. Since some ships have too much armor to be destroyed by one dice, using multiple weapons to combine damage is essential.
A gunship attempts to defeat a Destroyer. With an armor of 8 it takes more than one dice to kill a Destroyer. In this case only one of the shots hit, thus the Destroyer escapes undamaged since one dice cannot roll an 8 all on its own.

You can also have two seperate ships fire together on one turn, provided that both are in range of the target. For instance on a turn I move one ship up next to another ship that has not yet fired. I can then declare that both ships salvo their weapons at an enemy target on the same turn.
The far left ship is out of range, but the other red ship has not fired.
So the left ship can move up, and both can fire their weapons at the blue gunship together on a single turn.

There are two types of laser, forward firing, and turreted. If a ship has forward firing lasers, it has to be facing it's target to fire, and it can only shoot at that target on that turn. If it does not use all its guns it can use another turn later to rotate and shoot at another target with any of the remaining unfired weapons. A ship with turreted lasers can shoot at multiple targets on the same turn. For instance, it can move, then shoot half of it's guns at one target, and the other half at another target, all on one turn. Needless to say, this can be useful. Only capital class ships are armed with turrets. Multiple ships can not combine fire at two seperate targets on one turn. So if a capital ships wants to combine fire it can't use its turrets to shoot at multiple targets.
A Destroyer fires 2 of it's 4 turrets at one ship, and 2 at another, on a single turn. This is an ability unique to capital ships with turrets.

Squadrons:

For easier movement of multiple ships, they can be grouped into squadrons, a squadron is a group of ships acting as one. They can be shown to be a squadron by putting them on a small plate or just by putting them in a tight formation together. A squadron can move and shoot together as if it were one ship.
You can stick ships in a squadron on a baseplate.
Or just put them in formation and declare them a squad.

This allows for combining multiple ship's movements and attacks in one turn, something that would be difficult if each ship had to move up on a seperate turn. They would be destroyed before a sufficiant group could be collected to combine fire. All the ships in a squad can fire at seperate targets on seperate turns if they wish, but the whole point is to combine their attacks against one target on one turn. The downside to a squadron is its damage system. When a ship attacks the squadron it attacks it as a whole. So if it rolls enough damage to destroy one ship in the squadron, that ship is destroyed. If it rolls enough to destroy two, two are destroyed, ect. The damage always starts with the weakest ship in the squadron. If you roll a six, and the weakest is a ship with an armor of four, and the next up has an armor of six, you can't pick off the six, the four is destroyed first leaving only two points of damage, not enough to harm any more ships. If all the ships in a squadron are of equal class, they are destroyed from left to right.
(Note, weakest is defined by resource costs first and weapons second. So cruisers and fighters are considered weaker than transports, even though the transport is unarmed. Gunships are considered more powerful than transports, because although they cost the same, they are armed. )
A yellow destroyer attacks the red squadron.
It scores two hits and rolls 9 damage points, enough to destroy two cruisers out of the squad.

Forming into a squadron also takes time. To make a squad the ships joining it all sacrifice their actions for the turn. Once they've moved into the squadron formation they can no longer move or shoot until the next round. Alternitively, a ship of a higher class can group ships of lower classes together under it. The 'lead ship' sacrifices it's shots, but not its move. The lower class ships it grouped with can still still move and shoot, thus the squadron could potentially move forward and attack together. For instance a capital ship could group three cruisers under it, then move the whole squad forward and let the cruisers combine attacks. A squadron can split up, or a ship can leave it, with no penalty. A ship can also move from one squad to another with no penalty. If a ship wants to join an existing squadron, only the new joinee sacrifices its shots. The other ships in the squad can still fire. When forming a squadron, all the ships that are going to be grouped into it are allowed to move into formation on the same turn, after which they are not allowed to more or shoot until the next round.

Multiple ships can move on one turn to join a squadron. After this move they are not allowed to move or shoot till the next round.

If a small ship or two is grouped with a capital ship, when the squad is attacked the weaker ships will be destroyed first. But they'll absorb enough of the damage that the capital ship will survive. Thus squadrons can be used to provide destroyers and battleships with escorts to protect them and keep them intact longer.
However, the squadron damage system is usually a weakness when attacked. If a large number of ships are grouped into a squadron together it provides the enemy with one target on which to concentrate their fire, resulting in a greater chance that a large part of the fleet will be wiped out on one turn.

Fleets:

A Fleet is a large group of ships which is made up of smaller squadrons or individual ships. A fleet is formed under a flagship. A flagship must be the largest class in the fleet and it has to be a capital ship. The ships joining the fleet must spend one turn forming up under the flagship, similar to a squadron except that they must all sacrifice their shots to join, even under the flagship. The Flagship is not allowed to shoot for the entire time that that the fleet stays together as it must spend its time keeping its subordinates orginized. Once the fleet breaks up the flagship is allowed to shoot again on the next round. The advantage of a fleet is that it is moved all together like a squadron, however the parts remain individual ships and squadrons which require seperate turns to shoot and be shot at. After a fleet moves, only one of it's parts, squadron or individual ship, can fire. Apart from being able to move together the ships in the fleet behave normally. Using a fleet instead of a giant squadron prevents a massive amount of damage from being taken when the enemy concentrates all their fire on the squadron. Instead a battle becomes a series of shootouts between smaller squadrons and individual ships, thus preventing overall damage from wiping the fleet out. I once had a squadron of eight ships utterly destroyed on a single turn by a counterattack of three ships. This would never have happened if the eight ships had been divided into a couple smaller squadrons grouped into a fleet. Since the largest ship in the Fleet will be unable to fire, fleets should only be formed when you have enough ships that you can sacrifice the shots of the flagship.

A bunch of ships form into a fleet of three seperate squadrons, on one turn. After this move they are not allowed to move or shoot till the next round.

Ships:

All the micro ships to be used should be built beforehand. You should build enough of each class of ship for each faction that it would be difficult to have all of them built and on the playing field at one time. Obviously it's not predictable what players will do, one player may prefer to build all the availible ships of one class. The availible ships for each faction should be roughly even, just in case the players do succeede in building all availible ships. A good number of ships to build would be; 2-3 battleships/carriers, 4 destroyers, 6 gunships, 10-12 cruisers, 2 transports, 2-4 squadrons of fighters.

I built three micro fleets, yellow & blue, red & white, and black. The last of which actually includes black, gray, brown, and any other dark color. Since I'd already used the vast majority of my collection building mini fig scale ships, my micro's are ultra simple, mostly just a few basic bricks and slopes stuck together in a roughly spacey shape. The only exceptions being battleships, which I put a few minutes extra work into. :) You don't have to make your ships this small, but the smaller they are the easier it is to build lots of them and have large fleets to play with.

Here is the list of ship classes:

Note that the larger a ship is, the more economic it is to build. For instance, two cruisers cost more than one destroyer, a ship which has the same amount of armor and guns as the two cruisers. Thus it's cheaper to save up and build larger ships, but faster to build a lot of smaller ones. Ships with turrets, IE Destroyers and Battleships/Carriers, are classified as capital ships and as such are the only ones allowed to serve as fleet flagships.

Transport- Armor=4- Armament= none- Cost=4
As mentioned before, transports are the only ships which can capture bases and power stations. However they are NOT allowed to warp. As you see in my example, I generally make transports simplistic and boxy.

Fighter- Armor=2- Armament= 1 Laser- Cost= 1 resource.
Fighters must be bought, and moved in squadrons of at least 3, with 5 being the optimal number. Fighter squadrons are easily destroyed and virtually useless for defending, but they are very useful at attacking or escorting. Fighters are also not allowed to warp. Fighters are usually represented by single pieces of 2 studs length, stuck on a narrow base plate.

Cruiser- Armor=4- Armament= 2 Lasers- Cost= 3 resources.
These are your most basic ship. Cheap to build, easy to destroy, and adequately armed. Practically useless on their own, a wolf pack of cruisers can be deadly. Hence they are best put together in squadrons. They also make great escorts when grouped under a capital ship. Since the weaker ships take damage first when the squad is attacked, the capship would remain intact even if major damage is done to the squadron. You should make the cruiser designs for each faction simple and small enough to build lots of them. Most of the designs seen here have only two or three pieces.

Gunship- Armor=6- Armament= 3 Lasers- Cost= 4 resources.
Gunships are a little tougher and better armed than cruisers. They are good for attacking capital ships. A pair of gunships has enough lasers to destroy even the largest capital ship, as long as the dice so decree. Gunships are best used in squads of two, though they can also be used as capital ship escorts. Gunship designs should be slightly larger or fancier than cruisers, though you don't need quite so many.

Destroyer- Armor=8- Armament= 4 turreted Lasers- Cost= 5 resources.
The basic capital ship, a Destroyer is roughly equivilent to two Cruisers, however they should not be underestimated. Destroyers can be useful for attacking groups of cruisers because they can shoot at multiple targets on one action. They are best used with escorts as a Destroyer by itself can be quickly dispatched by a handful of cruisers. Destroyers should be about twice the size of cruisers and gunships.

Battleship- Armor=12- Armament=6 turreted Lasers- Cost= 8 resources.
The most powerful capital ship, Battleships are a great weapon of indimidation. When the enemy sees one moving on their position they know you mean buisness. Battleships are good for pretty much everything, attacking and defending. A wolfpack of cruisers or a pair of gunships has enough guns to destroy a battleship on one turn, so the use of escorts to screen the them from attack is a good idea. Battleships should be large and fancy, about two times larger than destroyers. you only need to build a couple of them for each faction since they are expensive enough that not many are liable to be built at one time. I built two for each of my three factions.

Carrier- Armor=10- Armament=4 turreted lasers- Cost= 8 resources. Builds fighters.
Carriers are weaker than battleships, but their ability to build fighters evens things out. When a player has a carrier, rather than building a fighter squadron at their base they can have the fighters launched by their carrier. They still cost one resource per fighter, but the ships are launched streight from the carrier, not the planet. Once launched fighters automatically become grouped in a squadron with the Carrier with no penalty. In addition to building them, a carrier can take up to 5 existing fighters inside of it and launch them at will. If a Carrier acts as a flagship in a fleet it can still launch and recall fighters even though it cannot shoot. Carriers can be identical to battleships, or different. If short on pieces you can allow players to build either battleships or carriers using the same mini's. When I use carriers at all I generally use the above three mini's.

This picture shows the progression in size. From left to right, fighters, cruiser, gunship, destroyer, Battleship/ Carrier.
The classes in microfleet are different from what is usually used for ships because I took them direct from the computer game 'Ares'. If you wish you can call the classes by these names, which match up more to modern ship classes. From left to right, Fighters, Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, and Carriers.

Rule Supplements:
These are extra rules that can make microfleet wars more interesting without offsetting the balance. However they do complicate the game somewhat and therefore are not included in the main body of rules.

Super laser- Range= two feet, damage= 2d6 per round of charge. Hit roll of 4.
The super laser rules make battleships still more of a threat. The Battleship class, without any other changes to weapons, armor, or cost, gets a super weapon added to its arsenal. The super laser has special rules governing its use. To fire the weapon a ship must declare that it is charging its super gun, and sacrifice its move and shot for one round. On the next round it can fire the weapon and it will do 2d6 damage to whatever it hits within a range of 2 feet. Furthermore, it cuts through multiple ships. If you could draw a line from the front of the firing ship, through two enemy ships, hit rolls can be made against both ships. Thus if the enemy has a cluster of ships you can hit two or three of them with one shot. Finally, rather than fire immediately on the next turn after it charges, the ship can continue to charge for another 2d6 of damage. If you charge for one turn the weapon does 2 dice of damage, if you charge for two turns it does 4 dice, three turns is 6 dice, and also the limit. At that point the gun must be discharged or on the fifth turn the super laser implodes doing six dice of damage to the ship that had it. These rules make the game slightly more complicated, but it helps make battleships a greater threat and adds to the tactical possibilities. If you want to use the max power on the super laser you have to charge for three turns, during which time the firing ship must be defended. This rule supplement is highly recommended.

Icon Ship- Armor=20- Armament=10 laser turrets- Cost=20 resources. Launches fighters and transports.
This optional addition to the rules is specifically for ships that are icons of a specific Movie, TV show, or game. The Starship Enterprise from Star Trek for instance. Only miniature models of iconic ships like the Enterprise or the Imperial Star Destroyer qualify as icon ships. An icon ship is a one ship fleet, capable of wiping out whole enemy fleets, often much like the ships they represent. :) In one test a single icon ship destroyed two battleships, three destroyers, and eight cruisers, all by itself. Icon ships can be used both to build fighters like a carrier, and build transports. It comes with five fighters and one transport already inside. Typical rules to limit the use of icon ships includes only allowing them to be built if a player has built every other mini availible to him, and automatically giving a player an icon ship if his planet is captured. He can try to use the icon ship to recapture his planet and stay in the game. If he succeeds, the icon ship is removed from the game until a planet is again captured. Sometimes icon ships can be used to play scenario's in which the ship is pitted against a fleet of enemies and must try to defeat them or complete a specific objective. This rule supplement is recommended for people playing a game in an existing sci-fi universe like Star Wars or Star Trek. You can also play a mothership game where the icon ship can construct all ship classes up to destroyer, and it gets one resource per turn just like a base or power station. Players with motherships get no other bases. If their mothership is destroyed, they player lose.

Flak Drone-
These work just like Power stations, except that instead of providing the player that owns them with resources, they serve as invincible firing platforms. A Flak Drone is placed on the battlefield like a Power station or base, it cannot be destroyed. it has four laser turrets which the player who owns it can use just like the guns of a ship. It requires a separate turn to fire, just like a ship. The only limitation is that it is not allowed to shoot at transports. Flak Drones can be captured by transports the same way as planets and power stations. These rules can be used to spice up the game a bit, especially if there are more than two players.

Scenario's:

These are stock scenario's you can play which i have tried and consider balanced or fun. Although designed for two you can play most of them with three or four players by re-arranging the battlefield.

1: Diamonds are Forever
This is the most basic hybrid base assault scenario. It has two bases and two powerstations arranged symetrically in a diamond. Each side starts with three cruisers and ten resources. Niether power station belongs to a side at the start so the first order of buisness is to build a transport and capture one. It's best to play live and let live for awhile, concentrate your forces around your power station and wait for an oportunity to strike at the enemy's station or base.

2: The Stars have Ears
This is a large scale scenario for tactics and fleet battles galore. Each side gets two powerstations about a foot to a foot and a half from their base. They start with ten resources, four cruisers, and a destroyer. Getting three resources per round a large fleet can be quickly built up. This is a scenario which can end in a spectacularly huge decisive fleet battle. Both sides just keep building, launching tiny skirmish attacks, afraid to attack each other, till eventually someone finally takes the plunge.

3: While The Iron is Hot
This is a scenario designed for short and sharp battles. Identical to the previous scenario except for the middle power station which belongs to no one at the beginning. Each player starts with ten resources, four cruisers, and a destroyer. In my experience whoever gets the middle station first, wins, and the more daring commander has the better chance of getting it. Another way to play this battle is to have the center station be a Flak Drone. This allows the side who owns it to concentrate all his forces around it, giving him a jumping off point to attack the enemy.

Or you can forget the planets and stations. Just give both sides a fleet and have at it...

Microfleet wars is very easy to learn and quick to play compared to normal war games. For instance, I recently visited a friend's house for one night. When I arrived they had lots of Lego, but had never heard of wargaming or miniature spaceships. By the time I left the next day we had built two large fleets, played one fleet vs fleet game and three full games with planets, power stations, the works. One of those games ended with a spectacular, massive fleet battle which lasted four rounds and resulted in the destruction of dozens of ships on both sides, and brought about my ultimate victory.

Let me know what you think, are the rules explained well enough? Got a question? Reviews welcome

i love this game so much! i have made some changes though an example would be that transports have one laser and can warp. geez i sound like a child in the comment below this one oh well when ur playin with legos are ya gonna be an adult or are u gonna be a kid? i vote kid! lol

this is great i have all the stuff i need ive already built two fleets have a flak drone three power stations and it is a fun game great job.
a friend of mine just stayed the night and we decided to use the super laser well he had all his forces around the drone in the middle and when i told him i was charging my super laser he didnt realize i set him up although the plan failed because i shot only 3 ships

I made Star Trek Online version, bigger fleets and ships based off of Star Trek Online, and when I mean big I mean about 100-150 ships per fleet, that can be combined into battlefleets with 3 each, and Assault Fleets made of 3 Battlefleets, so ya, HUGE SCALE!

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.

I have tried this game and it is amazingly entertaining. A great idea would be to get a bunch of friends together, and duke it out. Trading ships among your friends too.. Its like that plastic punch-card pirates game a few years ago, only you decide what your fleet looks like.